Welcome to The Blue Collar Blog! Sponsored by Blue Collar University® and Bart Gragg. Our goal is to help blue collar managers succeed by working with both them and those who manage them. To get the most out of these blog "hints and tips" subscribe to the RSS Feeds or by Email. Read the posts and leave your comments so that others can learn from your experience as well.

Blue Collar Managers – It’s Your Turn To Be Heard!

by Bart Gragg

This is an opportunity for blue collar managers and those that manage them to voice their frustrations and successes.

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Ten Words Not to Use With Blue Collar Managers

by Bart Gragg

When a person moves from labor into management they enter a whole new realm of communication, including vocabulary.

Quite often I hear them talk about and ridicule ‘biz-speak’ or ‘corporate-speak’. It’s not that they cannot grasp these concepts, it’s just that they have never experienced them. Some of them are useless to the blue collar manager, others you will want them to understand. Before you use words, phrases and acronyms be sure your audience understands them.

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What Do Border Wars, Swine Flu and Business Plans Have in Common?

by Bart Gragg

What do border wars, swine flu and business plans have in common? People avoid them like the plague. They tell a story about the decisions we make. The results point to why writing a business plan is essential – it focuses the decision making process and reduces loss through indecision and poor decisions.

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From Outhouse to In-House – Challenges Blue Collar Managers Face – Pt. 3

by Bart Gragg

When The New Blue Collar Manager moves from the field to the office he encounters several psychological reactions, chief among them scarcity.
From wide open spaces, outside with the horizon in view, inside a large warehouse, open yards, hot and cold, freedom, ah yes, living the great outdoors life! Then reality hits like a…

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Tell Me Why Would You EVER Want to Support A Manager? – Challenges Blue Collar Managers Face – Pt. 2

by Bart Gragg

People might have an idea why they need to support and train a manager, but they don’t really get it, the ‘it’ being the underlying reasons that they should take action.

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The Top Challenges New Blue Collar Managers Face

by Bart Gragg

The single most prominent challenge that managers who have moved from the field/warehouse into the office face is an environmental change. This environmental change actually has subsets such as:

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